Sylvia's Scenario

Today, we celebrated Lauren's birthday with Sunday brunch at Portage Bay Cafe.   We take our food seriously so this place was for us. Lauren had Portage Bay Cafe pegged on her radar. We happily granted her wish to have a culinary experience here for her birthday. The Portage Bay Cafe is known for their Breakfast Bar which consists of fresh berries and cherries (seasonal fruit) along with bowls of coconut, nuts, raisins, butter, and organic maple syrup.  And a little whipped cream. They are also known for using local, organic and sustainable ingredients - a common trend here in Seattle and always dog friendly. We started off with the most delicious coffee (Fair Trade, of course) and Lauren ordered her usual Bloody Mary. Our server provided us with two complimentary pieces of their coffee cake to start us off. (What a nice guy!) It disappeared immediately since we were all starving, good thing because you definitely want t...

We have been in Seattle for 4 weeks now during this  phase two  of moving and we haven't seen it rain yet.  Seattle and no rain.  Can you believe it?  We are getting eager to see rain.  We've woke up twice and saw that it was wet outside but we've never actually seen it rain.  Today, they said it was going to rain but we haven't seen it.  We still planned a day outside despite the forecast of rain and went down to Alki Beach for the West Seattle Art Fair.  People-watching is fun and so is pig-watching. You never know what you'll run into but we loved these pot belly pig pets. Was it the weather or was it the pigs?  But as we walked home from the free shuttle bus from the art fair, I got the urge to stop at the grocery store and buy a pork roast to cook for dinner tonight. I have not used our oven in the new house yet and now with the cooler weather, I craved a pork roast with garlic. I cut slits in the r...

My birthday presents keep coming in.  I've been known to celebrate the whole month of July and this year is no exception.  Since my birthday , I received a selfie stick from Lauren which, as you can see, still takes practice to use...and a Seahawks 12th man flag from my best friend, Marge, who came over to visit after we arrived back in town.  I'm now ready for Seahawks football to start and you can't live in Seattle without a 12th man flag.  It's been a steady stream of visitors since we arrived  June 28th  of people stopping by with housewarming presents and birthday presents.  Can't complain about that!  Last night, my sister surprised me with another birthday present of a night out for dinner and then to the  Book Larder , a local community book store that holds multiple events each month. Last night, they hosted guest author, Jessica Fechtor, of   Stir   and author of the food blog,  Sweet Amandine .  I ha...

Yesterday, was our 34th wedding anniversary and believe it or not, the original celebration happened just blocks away from where we live now in West Seattle. Bruce lived with roommates in a house they rented and that's where we had our reception. It was a very fun time. We flew off to Hawaii the next day for our honeymoon. Now, we are back living in West Seattle. We rode our bikes right by that house the other evening and just stared at it for awhile. We just can't believe it has been 34 years. But it has, so we might as well celebrate! We went down to Salty's for an elegant dinner and celebration which is only blocks from our house. Salty's is known for it's seafood and views so we thoroughly enjoyed our evening. We are currently living with minimum house and kitchen supplies since we are only in   phase two   of moving so a well put together meal is tasting real good.  Our meals are currently consisting of barbecuing out on the deck which isn...